San Francisco, CA - While parents used to talk to their children about sex, drugs and rock-and-roll, Visa USA's back to school survey shows that it's now become sex, drugs, and money management.

According to Visa USA's June back to school survey of parents of high school students, good money management skills (85 percent) ranks ahead of both drugs (80 percent) and sex (79 percent) as topics that they will be discussing with their high-schoolers. However, 56 percent of parents said that their high school student still thinks that money grow on trees.

"It's clear that a majority of parents know how important it is to talk to their children about personal financial skills," said Rosetta Jones, director Visa USA. "The back-to-school season presents an opportunity for parents to give their teens hands-on practice with comparison shopping and shopping on a budget."

"Parents can use the free Back to School Budget Calculator at www.practicalmoneyskills.com to turn these discussions into life lessons on budgeting and comparison shopping during the back-to-school shopping season," Jones added.

The Visa USA survey also showed that 86 percent of parents plan to shop with their students for their back-to-school needs, but as many as 62 percent of parents dread this experience. Although most students have a part-time job, 82 percent of parents give them money to buy what they need for school.

"We've heard from many parents that they dread back-to-school shopping, so why not turn this chore into an educational experience for your teens? While talking about finances is important, practice is also a necessary part of becoming disciplined with money," said Jones. "To teach the value of a dollar, consider having your child use some of his/her money for purchases."

Additional findings:

• 56 percent of parents believe high school graduates are totally unprepared to manage their personal finances responsibly.
• Only 30 percent of parents said their child's high school offered a course on practical money skills.
• 78 percent of parents said their high school student does not have a budget.
• 57 percent of parents put no restrictions on how their child can spend the money they are given.
• Over half of the parents surveyed, 62 percent, require their teens to save at least some of what they earn.
• Out of parents surveyed, 53 percent said their children generally spend the money they earn on money on food and entertainment.
• Only 37 percent of parents said their family will have an itemized back-to-school budget, 61 percent will not.

While students learn most of their money management skills at home, an overwhelming majority of parents would like to see schools join in and help. 73 percent of the parents surveyed said that schools should be required to teach money management skills and almost all of them, 99 percent, think it's important to teach high school kids these lessons before they leave home.

"Teaching sound money management skills begins at home and should continue in the classroom. This is one of the reasons why Visa created Practical Money Skills for Life," said Jones. "Everyone can use some help when it comes to teaching better finance management."

Visa surveyed 1,000 Parents of High School students on June 29-30, 2004.

Practical Money Skills for Life is an online curriculum created by Visa and is free to consumers. It features lesson plans, interactive calculators, and activities for parents, teachers, students, and consumers of all ages. Additional components of Visa's ongoing campaign to enhance personal financial literacy include:

• An effort to increase the financial literacy of America's youth by sponsoring the third annual Practical Money Skills for Life Educator Challenge. This contest will award teachers who creatively incorporate money management education in the classroom. Registration begins this summer for the 2004-05 school year, and last year winners are posted on www.practicalmoneyskills.com.

• A program that bridges the digital divide by donating computer equipment to schools in need and providing training for teachers. During 2004, Visa will continue this program by donating computer labs to 10 high schools across the United States. To date, Visa has donated more than 40 computer labs nationwide.

About Visa
Visa is the world's leading payment brand and largest consumer payment system, enabling banks to provide their consumer and merchant customers with a wide variety of payment alternatives. Nearly 21,000 financial institutions worldwide rely on Visa's processing system, VisaNet, to facilitate $2.5 trillion in annual transaction volume with virtually 100-percent reliability. Consumers in more than 150 countries carry more than 1 billion Visa-branded cards, accepted at millions of locations worldwide. Within the United States, nearly 14,000 financial institutions issue 429 million Visa cards, accounting for more than $1.1 trillion in annual transaction volume. Visa offers a trusted, reliable and convenient way to access and mobilize financial resources - anytime, anywhere, any way. For more information about Visa, please visit www.visa.com.